PROFILE
Mark Naison
Mark Naison
Professor, Fordham University
Mark Naison is Professor of African and African American Studies at Fordham and the founder and principal investigator of the Bronx African American History Project. He is the author of four books, and over one hundred articles on African American History, labor history, sports and popular culture, the most recent of which is "The Rat that Got Away: A Bronx Memoir' which he wrote with Allen Jones. He has also spent many years as a coach and community organizer in Brooklyn and the Bronx, and in some circles is best known for his appearance on the Chappelle Show and the educational raps he gives in Bronx Schools under the name Notorious Phd.
- Hip Hop's Influence on New York's Youth
Comment: The leaders of Sisters and Brothers United who drafted this powerful piece have more allies than they realize. First of all, not every mainstream hip hop artist is promoting misogyny, violence and "poor on poor" crime. Recently, Eminem and Rihanna released one of the most powerful critiques of domestic violence that I have ever heard in ANY musical genre "I Love the Way You Lie." This song will be remembered long after "Bedrock" is forgotten. Secondly, there is a powerful feminist resistance movement that operates within hip hop. For the last three years a festival called "Mommas Hip Hop Kitchen" has attracted nearly a thousand people, most of them young, most of them women of color, to a celebration of women's power featuring women dj's, rappers, poets, and b girls. The women who organize and participate refuse to cede hip hop to artists like 50 Cent and Lil Wayne. Finally there is a thriving hip hop underground, in the U.S. as well as other countries, that contains powerful commentary on poverty, war, police violence and the persecution of immigrants. From Brooklyn's Talib Kwali and Hi Tek , to Harlem's Immortal Technique to the Bronx's Rebel Diaz and La Bruja, there are artists who use the hip hop tradition to speak truth to power in the tradition of Public Enemy and KRS-1. These artists are not promoted on mainstream radio and television, but their music is easily accessible on the Internet and they perform regularly for progressive organizations and community groups. Let's not give up on hip hop yet. The corporate interests that have ruined mainstream hip hop are the same ones that have destroyed our economy, and we have to fight them musically the same way we have to fight them politically.
Posted on July 26, 2010
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